Last Pictures of February

Little Boy

Smiley getting ready to give Little Boy a kiss. She loves to give him kisses.

She wasn't, however, as thrilled about getting one in return.

Cutie Pie #2 playing with a silk

Cutie #1 acting out Itsy Bitsy Spider

Cutie Pie #2 and #1 doing a puzzle together Smiley and Little Boy playing with the Antartica animals (there are more penguins on the table too) Little Boy and Belle doing pegs together

I love how the children play well together. Most of the time anyway. I mean, they are children. :)

What We Were Up To In February

Well, we were up to more than what was in these pictures! We started the month of February being closed for two days because of the huge blizzard that came through Illinois. We live in a subdivision with detached garages & alleys and we couldn't get any vehicles in or out! We also celebrated Chinese New Year and Valentines Day. The first few pictures are of Jelly Bean (age 9) and some of the preschoolers. They love her and she loves them. It works out well!

Little Boy (age 2) and Jelly Bean

Smiley (age 3) Jelly Bean

Belle (1) and Jelly Bean

Jelly Bean and All Boy (2)

Smiley, Little Boy, and Cutie Pie #1 (age 1) and Cutie Pie #2 (age 3) wearing the dressing vests.

Jelly Bean's creation out of white Sculpey clay.

What we were up to in January . . .

Here are some pictures taken in late January. Most of the pictures were taken before we made the switch to a little bit more of a Waldorf feel. Anyway, here are a few pictures of the kids "in action." Just FYI - Montgomery Academy currently has three part-time students and 3 full-time students. There are three 3 year olds, two 2 year olds (one is almost 3, the other just barely turned two) and one 1 year old.

Eating lunch

Playing with Pegs in a non-traditional way (yes, those are pegs on their fingers!)

Being a moose

Doing dot paint

Playdoh - we usually do play-doh daily. These two cuties are part-timers. And sisters!

Wearing the Snap dressing vest

Our littlest student is getting big! She is almost 18 months now!

Making a change around Preschool here . . .

I've actually been changing things for awhile but I just haven't got around to posting about it. I just don't post here often. I think it is because things are working, yet things don't often change that much.

And the other reason is that I'm doing less with Montessori.

I still love it. I've used the method for YEARS with preschoolers. But I've found that lately, with this latest group, partly because they are mostly younger, mostly under 3s, that it just wasn't working for us.

So I have gone to more of a Waldorf feel for the younger kids here. We still do circle time and we still talk about numbers and shapes and colors during circle time, but much of the time is spent with free play using natural products. And I've put many of the Montessori-specific materials in storage.

I also do less with monthly themes, at least in terms of specific materials out on the shelves. I still do themes with the books I read each week and we do things like make watercolor hearts for Valentine's day. Oh and I still make the play-doh a different color every month. But most of the shelf work is more open-ended, natural materials.

We do more "natural" practical life too. I still have some practical life activities on the shelf, but not much. I have a transfer work, a polish work, a folding work, and the dressing vests right now. But they help me prepare meals and wash and dry and sweep too.

So I think the blog will change a little. It will mostly be pictures of the preschool kids doing whatever they are doing that week, and some specific posts about what the school-aged kids are working on.

I hope you come along for the new journey!

US Geography: The 2nd and 3rd grade Version

We study the 50 states around here in 2nd and 3rd grade. We usually get through 25 the first year, and 25 the second. Works out well :)

So Jelly Bean did the first 25 last year and is working on the second half this year. We are in the "New" states right now.

I have been using most of the following resources since Flower started homeschooling in 3rd grade in 2008, but I have picked up a couple things new this year. We generally study Geography every day, but it is only for 10-15 minutes a day.

We usually start out the week reading about the state from this book, Children's Illustrated Atlas of the United States. It is pretty good. It was advanced reading for her when she was in 2nd grade but doesn't have any problems reading it this year.

Then we will go to studying the State Quarter. I will usually get a coloring page from this site and information about the quarter from this site.

On another day, she will usually color the state and other state information from this book. (I actually picked up my book from a garage sale for FREE. Woo-hoo! Love little deals like that!)

On the same day that she colors in the Dover book, she also colors the state flag and other state information from this site.

On Thursday, she will usually spend a few minutes looking at the state on the Discovery Map (shown below.) The kids found this map at the thrift store for $1.00. The map has viewholes over each state and you can dial through and see one of six themes: Capital, Scenery, Landmark, Person, Fun Fact 1, and Fun Fact 2. You use the attached magnifier viewer to look at the viewholes. My kids really like it.

She will also usually do an activity or two from the US States Kit from Montessori For Everyone. We are BIG fans of Montessori For Everyone and have many items from them. (The image below is from the Montessori For Everyone website.)

On Fridays, she will take out all the states out of the Montessori US Map Puzzle except for the one that she is working on and then put the puzzle back together. Last year, she would put the pieces in the control map when she took them out. This year, she mixes the pieces up on the table and then puts the pieces back in. After that, she takes out the state that she is working on and traces the state that she is working on on a 5" x 5" (inset) paper. She is compiling a state book.


So that's it. That's how we study US States here at Montgomery Academy!